Introduction
Exploring the issue of gender polarization within the Irish education system and how the treatment of masculinity is hindering the male students.
The following image shown below (fig.1) will be the cornerstone of this argument. It was important that the text shown was writing on a chalkboard as this simply piece of equipment has become an iconic symbol that represents education all over the world.
According to the "The Origin of the Male and Female Symbols of Biology” by T. William, the Mars symbol ♂ (often considered to represent a shield and spear) for male and Venus symbol ♀ (often considered to represent a bronze mirror with a handle) for female, derived from astrological symbols, denoting the classical planets Mars and Venus, respectively. Though to many individuals, gender identity isn’t always exclusive to a single sex. But within Irish sociality, social pressure to conform to their gender role, encompassing a range of behaviours and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based on their actual or perceived sex or sexuality.
This paper will highlight how these gender norms are effecting preadolescent boys as the undergo the transition from primary school into post primary education.
Does Irish education provide an equal opportunity to each gender?
To answer this question, I discuss the work of three scholars whose ideas are central: Jenny Shaw and the investigation into the polarisation of gender in education, philosopher William Pollack and how he addresses the detrimental influence of societal stereotypes on masculinity–and how a steady process of humiliation serves to indoctrinate boys to an unhealthy mode of being.
And finally, Debbie Epstein’s research that intersects the construction of gender and her thoughts breaking the boundaries of masculinity.
Theme Detailed
At birth, babies are assigned male or female based on physical characteristics. This refers to the "sex" of the child. When children are able to express themselves, they will declare themselves to be a boy or a girl (or sometimes something in between); this is their "gender identity." Most children's gender identity aligns with their biological sex. However, for some children, the match between biological sex and gender identity is not so clear. How does gender identity develop in children?
Around two-years-old, children become conscious of the physical differences between boys and girls. Before their third birthday, most children are easily able to label themselves as either a boy or a girl. By age four, most children have a stable sense of their gender identity. During this same time of life, children learn gender role behaviour—that is, do¬ing "things that boys do" or "things that girls do."
Before the age of three, children can dif¬ferentiate toys typically used by boys or girls and begin to play with children of their own gender in activities identified with that gender. For example, a girl may gravitate toward dolls and playing house. By contrast, a boy may play games that are more active and enjoy toy soldiers, blocks, and toy trucks.
By the time a child finishes public primary education, gender norms are a well-established concept. The definition of gender norms according to United Nations Statistics Division – UNSD. Global Gender Statistics Programme is
Standards and expectations to which women and men generally conform, within a range that defines a particular society, culture and community at that point in time.
Pollack writes that psychological insights have recently helped girls find their voices upon entering their teens, especially through such projects as the Ophelia Project. The problem for girls was the result of “society’s gender stereotypes about girls” and he calls for help along the same line for boys.
‘‘Boys today are in serious trouble, including many who seem “normal” and to be doing just fine. Confused by society’s mixed messages about what’s expected of them as boys, and later as men, many feel a sadness and disconnectedness they cannot even name. New research shows that boys are doing less well in school than they did in the past and, in comparison to girls, that many boys have remarkably fragile self-esteem, and that the rates of both depression and suicide are frighteningly on the rise. Many of our sons are currently in a desperate crisis.’’
To highlight should a large ‘crisis’ this paper will narrow it scope to a small window of transition for a child. The move from primary to secondary school. For the child, the transition to post primary education is both the focus of a number of frightening stories and a major, looming hurdle to be surmounted. Subject choice, whether for the Junior Cert, Leaving Cert or degree course, is a fairly discrete event. But the shadow of anxiety or worry about whether the choices were the right ones can last for years. This could be considered one of the first opportunities a student has to independently express their interests. It’s undeniably a crucial period of time for the development of a student sense of self-identity. This would be ideally being a quick and easy process, but sadly for many students it is not. The task of selecting the subjects, has become a source of anxiety for many, as student confronts the social pressures of heteronormativity.
A gendering of subjects, could be a by-product of object-relations theory. This theory has a particular purchase here as it explains how and why subjects can be experienced, and manipulated, like people. As unconscious factors such as developmental stage and its characteristic crises affects how we relate to, so too do they affect how we relate to subjects. This means ‘that educational choices such as choosing, specializing subjects…. may bear less relation to rational or future-oriented factors (anticipated career, for example) and more to past feelings about parents, siblings, and teachers and the relationships with all these people that become embodied in the subject.’ J. Shaw 1995.
Whilst no one consciously says, ‘Because I’m a boy I will do physics’ or because I’m a girl I’ll do French’ something, nevertheless sorts out the subjects by gender pretty efficiently, and the bi polar pattern of boys taking science whist girls arts courses gets deeper or more fixed at each successive stage of the educational ladder. To question what is the cause if this division is the first step in trying to address the issue.
One of the factors I purpose is the detrimental influence of societal stereotypes on masculinity. the idea that masculinity demands that men harden up and never to be seen expressing feminine behaviours. As described in Christine Howard’s Making a Man of Him (1988) ‘all forms of femininity were equated with weakness’.
This sense of hegemonic masculinity in schools is a dangerous problem to let go unchecked. Pushing boys further away from certain subjects in fear of bullying. This conceive behaviour ‘Boy Code’, as Dr William Pollock identifies it, from a very young age boy adopt this behaviour. In the classroom, this aptitude came be seen in everyday scenarios: when boy struggle to keep up with the class, they don’t seek help for the teacher – they act out. Teachers natural reaction to this disruptive behaviour is to take disciplinary action and as this situation continues to repeat itself, frustration and depression begins to dominate the child’s experience of school. Tragically, Pollock also notes, between the ages of 10 and 19, boys are far more likely to take their lives than girls. Over the last 20 year the figure has drastically multiplied.